Could this man be phoning customer service about a change to his bus route?

I don’t want to believe it, but September is quickly approaching. Every fall we makes changes to our transit service. And every summer, we at TransLink talk amongst ourselves about how best to communicate those changes.

Regular readers of the blog and Buzzer newsletter know that we post and print these changes. However, we know that not everyone reads the blog or the newsletter (it’s shocking, we know).

In anticipation of this year’s September service changes, we’d love to know how you get your service change information. More specifically, how do you find out about changes to the transit route(s) you regularly use?

We’d also like your suggestions on how we can better inform riders of service changes. Take the poll and leave a comment with your thoughts. Let’s get more people in the know, so, come September, there are fewer surprises!

If your regular transit route changes, how do you usually find out?

translink.ca (24%, 55 Votes)

Buzzer blog (17%, 40 Votes)

signage at bus stop (17%, 39 Votes)

Buzzer newsletter (9%, 21 Votes)

Twitter (8%, 18 Votes)

I only find out when the transit service actually changes (8%, 18 Votes)

I can’t think of anything that Translink could do to spread the word. Maybe Translink should ask riders to spread the word.

Every time we see a route change that concerns a rider whom we know, we could pass on the news. We could also inform riders whom we don’t know at the bus stops.

As Canadians, we seem to have a willingness to line up and obey some rules some times. We are also willing to say “please” and “thank you”, so it makes sense that we would be willing to look out for our fellow passengers. It would be awkward at first, but once we do it a few times, then I bet that we could get into a good habit.

there’s twitter, the website and customer service, but the only place that every user of a route has to goes to is the bus stop. So I think anything else would only target a part of the the group you want to target. Word of mouth wouldn’t reach everyone either, but it would help expedite the spread.

I don’t have a problem with long term route changes…. it’s the short term route changes that drives me crazy… Every year I go to the Hyack Parade. However I can never plan my trip as I do not know what the route changes are. Calling customer service and they don’t know either. It’s like the drivers make up routes as they need.

For example what’s bus can take me to from Skytrain to Queen’s stadium. The community shuttles are NOT running.

Regarding short term route changes, I agree. That is why I hate car-free days. I support the push for a car-free city. I just hate having transit rerouted. Nobody should have to be aware of such interruptions. They can cause people to be late for work.

Perhaps car-free days can be held on side streets, with exceptions for local residents.